Autonomous Reaction Corps When we were Wrong
by Hitokiri Hawkeye
Summary: ARC Corps Team Sigma. An elite section of the Guardian Force. To them impossible is a word with no meaning. But on one mission where everything seems stacked against them they have to wonder if Maybe they were wrong.
1. Chapter 1

A/N I'll admit not my best wrote it in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep.

* * *

Whale King 357 "Ambiance" Guardian Force Emblem brightly emblazoned on the side of it's olive drab hull sailed effortlessly and unopposed over clear blue azure skies, the world looking peaceful below it. The same could not be said for the interior of the large carrier Zoid. An entire Zoid Battalion was busy preparing themselves for battle. Command Wolf ACs and Shield Ligers, stood side by side with Saber Fangs and Dark Horns. All about the numerous Zoids both pilots and mechanics wondered about repairing damaged units or performing routine maintenance on the large machines.

Sergeant Rayford was one such pilot having finished the work on his Liger and had set about checking in on his squad's units making sure they were in top fighting condition. No soldier of his was going to go into battle with a sub standard Zoid. The clang of a falling tool drought him out of his revelry and over to where a Liger stood off to the side looking slightly out of place with a newer coat of paint then most of the other Zoids in the Whale King's hanger. Rayford sighed, the rookie was good, he wouldn't be in the unit if he wasn't but the young man still had much to learn.

"Newbie!" Rayford called approaching the Liger. "What have I told you about respecting your tools?"

"That I should never ever drop them." Private Berkeley answered sheepishly from atop the Liger's lowered head.

"That's right." Rayford said picking up the dropped tool. "How's it coming?"

"Good Sarge." Berkeley said hoping down to the deck fixing his Republic uniform. "I've got the bug in the missile guidance system worked out so it wont be a problem."

"Good." Rayford said playfully poking Berkeley with the wrench. "You gonna be ready for tomorrow's op?"

"Yes, I believe so." Berkeley said looking around the hanger. "Although to be honest Sarge I'm not sure what the op is."

"Cannon Fodder Newbie." Rayford said handing Berkeley the tool back. "Our battalion is to movie in cause a bunch of noise and then get the fuck out of dodge."

Berkeley looked puzzled but before he could ask the Sergeant to elaborate a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye distracted him. Looking off to his right Berkeley say three men, each wearing specialized uniforms walk into the hanger where they promptly headed off towards the real of the hanger stopping now and then to ask a pilot or mechanic or two a question about their Zoid.

Something about them seemed off so turning back to Rayford Berkeley asked. "Who are they?"

Rayfor turned looking off to the side, when he turned back his face was as hard as rock. "Watch yourself around those men Newbie. They're part of the ARC Corps."

Berkeley raised an eyebrow "ARC Corps?"

"Autonomous Reaction Corps." Rayford said looking towards the three pilots off in the distance.

"What do they do?" Berkeley asked following Rayford's line of sight.

"To put it simply Newbie 'Impossible' is a challenge to them. You remember that op about six months ago?"

Berkeley nodded. "Yeah a small group of terrorists had somehow gotten their hands on a battalion of Iron Kong's and a few support Zoids….it was cancelled before we could mobilize." He blinked. "You mean those three?"

Rayford shook his head. "No I mean those _four_. There's four pilots per team. Their team leader's waiting for them in their briefing room."

"Your shitting me!" Berkeley exclaimed placing his hands on his hips. "There's no way."

"Believe what you will. But the fact remains they picked them off and lived to tell about it."

"HOW?"

"No idea." Rayford pulled out a cigarette and lighting it up took a drag from it. "But I'll tell you this Newbie. Don't harbor hopes of joining. I only know of two ways to leave that unit, in a straight jacket or in a six foot box."

"I'll keep that in mind." Berkeley frowned. "One last question Sarge."

"Hmm?"

"What kind of Zoids they pilot, out of curiosity?"

Rayford's brow furrowed in thought. He scratched at his forehead cigarette held in his fingers. "Not really sure I've heard its different from team to team. The more versatile it is the more the love it. But I know what the team leader for this

unit pilots." Berkeley raised an eyebrow urging his Sarge to continue.

"A König Wolf."

* * *

A/N Please be gracious in the Reviews, as I said I was half asleep when I wrote this. But anyway, we met the main character in the next chapter which will be much better then this one I promice.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Alright wrote this one when I was actually awake, so it should be better. The story line follows the Guardian Force anime, but I'm using some Zoids from the battle story that never appeared in the anime, (NOT counting Fuzors)

* * *

OPENING PROLOGUE (to the music of Tomb Raider Legend Theme): Centuries have pasted sense the defeat of the Death Saurer. The Guylos Empire and Helic Republic have learned to coexist in harmony. But even in these peaceful times there are those who threaten the tranquility of the planet. In response the Guardian Force deploys a new kind of team. These teams operate independently and specialize in doing the impossible. Team Sigma lead by Major Dan Ventus and his Zoid partner "Storm" is one such team that risks their lives to protect peace and prosperity for the people of Planet Zi.

ooo

Major Dan Ventus looked up from the speaking podium in the small conference room, just the rest of his team began to walk in. Average in build, standing only a shade taller then six feet, with messy brown hair and bright green eyes, five o'clock shadow that never seemed to go away no matter how often he shaved, Dan didn't look like the type to be leading elite troops into battle, in fact someone had once told Dan, he looked more like a civilian then a soldier, even in his military uniform.

The same could not be said for the first member of the team to walk into the conference room. Lieutenant Bernard Hoss looked like a soldier through and through, tall powerful in build he wore his red hair in a precise crew cut and his pilot suit, a black jumpsuit with gold trimming matching his Shadow Fox, was as pristine as if it just came from the dry cleaners. He was also the quietest one of the team only speaking when needed. In spite of his large size he was a master of infiltration and intelligence gathering. A former Lighting Saix pilot for the Empire, Hoss had garnered a reputation for being a damn good field intelligence officer, so after joining the Guardian Force, Dan recruited him directly to his team. And has been a close friend and confidant to Dan ever sense.

Behind Hoss came the team's only female member, Captain Sara Gunther was the teams air support, she could pilot a Raynos with such skill Dan had begun to call her the team's personal Valkyrie. Sara like Dan did not look the part of 'elite warrior', while her body was toned after years of sustained High-G aerial combat she was still rather small only coming up to Dan's shoulder, her shoulder length auburn hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail and stuffed down the back of her formfitting crimson flight suit. While one of the most attractive woman Dan had ever seen she was also the shyest member of the group, as long as Dan had knowm her she suffered from confidence problems of one kind or another, except when it came to her piloting abilities, Dan had seen a soldier make a negative comment about her flying. Last Dan had heard the poor soul had just gotten out of therapy.

Last through the door and certainly not least was Lieutenant Rob Sherman, team sniper. As smart ass as they came Johnson was a tall and rangy man with unruly blonde hair and blue eyes, like Hoss, Rob hailed from the Guylos Empire, and still wore his Imperial uniform with pride, but as far as Dan could discern Rob had a special taste for Republic Zoids, especially the Gun Sniper. Dan had no doubt that if Rob ever missed it was on purpose.

His team assembled, Dan flipped a switch on the podium activating the wall sized view screen. "Morning boys and girls." he said looking each team member over before flipping another switch on the podium, the image switched from that of the Guardian Force logo to a picture of an elderly gentleman, in typical archeological garb, the mans face was sun tanned and rough looking from a life time of digging. Behind the man was a whole field full of Zoids and people were working on what Dan guessed to be some sort of archeological dig. "The gentleman here is Professor Jonah Kamila, he's one of the world's foremost experts on Ancient Zoidian techology. He disappeared about three weeks ago." Dan paused to make sure the rest of the team was with him. So far they were.

"His body turned up a week after his disappearance in an East City sewer." Dan swallowed forcing his stomach down. "I have personally seen the autopsy photos. Kamila's death was neither quick, clean, nor painless. Who ever killed him did it slowly and painfully, with a fuck load of torture. And Intel thinks they know why." Dan flipped to another slide showing an aerial view of a camp situated in the middle of a mountain range. "This was Kamila's last known dig. He left to petition the University he worked for for more funding. He claimed to close colleagues and friends, that he had found something. Something he claimed would change everything. Well whoever killed him agreed with that claim. And a week later this is what we found." The next slide showed where once had been an archeological camp was now replace with a much much larger fully stocked military complex. "An S3 flight took these photos not long after the doctor had turned up dead, and all communication from the students at the camp had been lost. Apparently HQ caught wind of whatever the good doctor had found."

The next slide showed and emblem of two silver Zoids locked in a struggle surrounded by a black circle. "This emblem belongs to a group who call themselves simply 'Zion' up until recently they have managed to stay under the intelligence offices' radar. I suspect they did that on purpose." Dan flipped over to a new slide this one was still of the complex but this time it was taken with thermal images. The whole complex appeared to be a massive blot of orange and red. Rob whistled. "Damn there's a lot of them."

Dan frowned. "Thats not their army, at least not all of it. What you are seeing is _below_ the ground." Everyone began to murmur at once. "What the fuck!" "NO WAY!" "What the hell is that?" Dan held up a hand all three mouths shut themselves instantly. "I don't know what it is and neither do the intelligence boys. But what we do know it its big and that's why we're going in under cover of a hit and run attack by the Seventeenth Battalion. If they do their job right they'll attack, make a big splash, and then run away making it look like they were soundly defeated. Then, with, hopefully, the enemy in the mist of a victory celebration we move in, ascertain the threat, and if it's a high enough threat destroy it. Whatever IT is. Any questions so far?" There were none. "Ok now on to the fun stuff."

Another flip of the switched and the image revealed a larger map of the area this one also showing major land marks as well as the change in elevation. "OK Rob."

"Yeah boss?

Dan pushed a button a large red dot appeared on a large hill over looking the base, with a smaller dot a few kilometers to the east. "The big dot is probably the best place to sit around and shoot someone."

"Do I get to use the BIG GUN?" Robbed asked hands folding together in a begging fashion.

Dan smiled. "Oh yes. You get to use the big gun."

"Excellent." Chuckled Rob tapping his fingers together menacingly.

""The small dot is probably the best spot in which to set up camp." Dan continued. "It's near the base with a thick clumps of trees leaving few places to enter, and plenty of room for the Raynos to take off in."

Sara, raised a hand. "Um Dan...what if...what if we can't destroy it. I can fly with the best of them thats for damn sure. But...what if...what if we don't have the firepower to destroy whatever it is?"

Dan smiled leaning heavily against the podium. "Has that ever stopped us before?" Sara shook her head. "Exactly! Extraction is simple. The Ambiance is to wait just out of sensor range and when we send out the signal it's to come in guns a blazing and get us the hell out of there. Anymore questions? No? OK now go gets your Zoids ready, who knows what we'll be facing."

Sara and Rob got up with out hesitation and left the conference room to go and prep their Zoids. Hoss on the other hand stayed where he was seated. "Can I talk to ya for a second?"

"Sure." Dan said powering down the view screen. "Whats on your mind?"

"Why us?" Dan raised an eyebrow and Hoss continued. "Something doesn't feel right. To me this mission looks more like something that the special ops should be involved in."

"Why do you say that?" Dan asked once again leaning on the podium.

"Search, evaluate, destroy?" Hoss shook his head. "That sounds more like spec ops work."

Oddly enough Dan started to laugh so hard he had to use the podium as a support. "Though I was about to go grazy. I was thinking the same thing."

"So?"

Dan quelled his laughter and tilted his head back to stare Hoss right in the eye. "I asked HQ why us ARCs. And you know what they told me?" Hoss shook his head. "They didn't at least not what I'd call a strait answer. When was they last time they gave us one of those?"

Hoss shrugged. "So you think they're something their not telling us?"

Instead of answering Dan headed for the door. "Thats why I said go get your Zoid ready. Gotta be ready for anything."

ooo

Dan couldn't help but smile as he entered the specialized hanger where Sigma Team had set up shop while aboard the Ambiance. The sight of all his teams Zoids standing side by side ready for deployment filled him with pride. Mechanics bustled about making last minute adjustments to the parachute packs attached to each of the three ground Zoids. Closest to the door was Rob's Gun Sniper, while the sniper unit looked like a base line model, if one did a thorough inspection of the tail sniper rifle you could clearly see a specialized socket along the bottom of the tail designed for an optional artillery cannon, that a second team of mechanics were busy installing while Rob was busy painting "BIG GUN" along the side of the barrel. While the cannon added untold weight to the Gun Sniper, Rob always supported the fact that it allowed him to support the team in a more flexible way, giving artillery cover as well as sniper cover. Plus Dan made sure he put in an ejection system so Rob could dump the cannon if he had too. So far both, the cannon and ejection system had come in handy.

Next to the Gun Sniper Sara's turquoise Raynos stood wings folded fuel lines still attached to the fuselage, Sara was doing a walk around of the flying Zoid making sure the detachable bomber unit was secure. Her primary job on this as well as most ops the team had been on, was to dive in out of the sky, release her bombs onto various ground targets, and then gain and maintain air superiority. With modifications to both the primary engines, and the control surfaces, as well as more powerful, more accurate Beam Cannons Sara's Raynos was truly the master of the air. She even went as far as to install the energy blades from a Storm Sworder along the leading edge of the Raynos's wings just 'for the fun of it.' she said.

Next stood Hoss's black and gold Shadow Fox. Hoss had long ago removed the standard 40mm Vulcan Gun in favor of the Double Barrel Pulse Rifle and Booster System from a Lightning Saix. While the combination looked odd Dan had to admit that with the right modification the Pulse Rifle did have the same firing arc of the Vulcan as well as packing just a little more punch. And the boosters negated the weight of the guns as well as increased the Shadow Fox's already impressive speed by a considerable amount. When combine with the Zoids stealth options Hoss's Shadow Fox was indeed a mighty machine.

Then at the far side of the hanger stood Dan's König Wolf, which he affectionately called 'Storm' after it's storm grey color scheme. Originally trained as a Command Wolf LC pilot Dan had a soft spot for wolf based Zoids in general but when he was assigned a König Wolf he fell in love with the Zoid. It was fast, agile and packed a massive bite in melee combat but like the others of it's kind Storm lacked any sort of built in ranged weapons. but Dan unlike his fellow Konig wolf pilots opted not to the standard dual sniper rifle. Instead he converted one barrel from each of the Double Barreled Multi-Dischargers to fire 105mm anti-Zoid rounds, and after a few of modifications to their scopes they had the same range as any sniper. Further improvements included refining the twin ion busters for better acceleration, and on the sides of the Zoid Dan had installed a pair of down force stabilizer fins improving the Zoid's overall speed, along with numerous nasty little features Dan was itching to use.

Walking up to where Storm was docked Dan smiled looking his Zoid over from top to bottom. "How ya feeling Storm?" Storm let out a small growl to which Dan chuckled. "Glad to hear it buddy." A mechanic appeared at Dan's side holding out a clipboard. "We've fixed the gyro problem you were having with right front leg, and the right gun barrel looked to be off by a few degrees so we ran a few simulation shots and realigned the barrel. Other then that he's good to go." Dan nodded taking the clipboard from the man. "Thanks chief." as the man left Dan looked back up towards his partner. "Glad to see you didn't give the grease monkeys any problems." Storm growled again a bit longer and more menacingly. "Yes I know you hat having a 'check up' but come on man." Dan looked the contents of the clipboard over, another growl. "Well I'm sorry you feel that way." Dan set the clipboard on a near by table before walking up to one of the crosswalks that ran around Storms sides and flanks. "OK buddy lets see if they missed anything." Growl.

* * *

AN: Please Read and Review. Go on you know you want to. And I want back and rewrote Storm's weapons cause I wasn't happy with the sniper rifle.

Translations of Storms 4 lines of dialog, perhaps I should put them in parenthesis in the dialog itself. What do you all think? "Peachy" "Stinking grease monkeys always getting where their not welcome" "I'd rather use them all [grease monkeys] as ammo" "Yes please do."

PS: The big red blob is NOT a Deathsaurer. That would be too ridiculous. But I will tell you it's something truly fierce.


End file.
